"Some of Armin Wiebe's finest writing has been about the constrained, measured rural world of the Mennonite farm. In Armin's Shorts, he revisits the people and situations that does so well, and turns the ordinary lives of the men, women, and the children into emotion poetry. The stories will make you laugh to tears and cry real tears, often in the same sentence. This is a body of work, comprising everything from the mournful to the hilarious.

"The characters are clumsy in love, awkward socially, and achingly sincere. Except when they're not. There's real anger and pain in these stories, and Armin manages to make heartbreak and yearning so damned attractive. I don't think Barn Dance will ever leave me.

"As a bonus, there are a handful of stories of the First People in the tradition of Wiebe's novel Tatsea, and they're as touching and enraging as they are beautiful to read. Wiebe's a master of character moving lightly and artfully between worlds with such skill as to be seamless.

"Armin Wiebe is a national treasure and I am hosta kopp in love with this book."-- Susie Moloney, author of The Thirteen and A Dry Spell